All posts tagged ‘Z-Man Games’

Overview:Agricola is a fantastic worker-placement game (one of my favorites, in fact) about farming, but it’s big and complex and can take hours to play. Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small is a compact version for two players that captures much of the feel of the original but in about half an hour. Fence pastures, build feeding troughs and buildings, and raise as many animals as you can!

Players: 2

Ages: 13 and up

Playing Time: 30 minutes

Retail: $40

Rating: Outstanding — a great blend of Agricola‘s mechanics in a compact form.

Who Will Like It? Fans of Eurostyle games that involve managing limited resources and time; people who like little wooden animeeples.

If I meant for this to say 7PM to Just Before Dawn, it would say so. It says 11PM. Thus 10:30 is not an appropriate time to start a game of Settlers: Cities and Knights or Agricola or Dominion for that matter. You see, my children will stay up until most of you go home. It is too noisy to go to sleep when all of you are here, and I have to deal with them tomorrow morning. The two of you may get to go home to your cat, sleep late, and then make love until noon, but I will have a child bouncing on my bed at 7:30 AM demanding food. I also have to try to get two of them to swim lessons by 9:00. I recognize that you don’t understand my lifestyle choices, and you think I am a total downer for letting my kids get in the way of our fun, but do me a favor, when the clock strikes 11:00 pretend you’re Cinderella and flee.

Where: Our home

We are so glad you are coming to visit. While we love a relaxed atmosphere, and don’t feel the need to try to impress you with our stuff, I really don’t like to have to ask you not to set your beer on our piano, but I will do so if I must. And even if your LARP adventuring party has decided to burn the Sorcerer out of his fortress, it is still not appropriate to set fire to the back of our house.

May we bring guests? Yes

We love it when you bring extra people to game night. Nothing is better than having our home stuffed to the gills with people laughing and having a great time playing games. However, there are a three people we would appreciate it if you did not bring with you:

Overview: Who wants to sit under a damp bridge waiting for travelers to cross? Not these trolls! They’ve decided it’s a much better deal to sail away in search of plunder: livestock, yummy people, gold and grog. Those darn Billy Goats are still around so you’ll have to keep an eye out for them. Still, with all this loot, it’s like paradise — Trollhalla!

Who Will Like It?Trollhalla is a bit hard to categorize, but ultimately it’s about making the most of limited actions to get the most plunder. Despite sharing the same designer and artist as Bridge Troll, this is a complete new game with entirely different gameplay. That said, if you liked Bridge Troll, you should certainly check this one out because designer Alf Seegert has a pretty good brain between his ears.